Brooklyn has long been a creative hotbed of artists, writers, and musicians and now the borough’s culinary renaissance is in full swing, cranking out more specialty food items than hipsters and baby strollers.  A recent New York Times article profiled a variety of artisan purveyors crafting handmade items like pickles, cheese, charcutiere, including a friend of mine, Rick Mast of Mast Brothers Chocolate (their sea salt dark chocolate is insanely delicious).  And before anyone starts mocking these endeavors as pretentious foodie indulgences, take a closer look at the care, commitment and passion these Brooklynites exhibit.  This kind of attention to quality, sustainability, and process is what our current industrial food system severely lacks, and our super-sized, unhealthy, and hurried meals are killing us slowly.

But for now, I want to steer away from the doom and gloom, and hope that the rest of the country will take the Brooklyn model and run with it.  I know that many cities and towns are well on their way to a smaller and smarter food system, but many people do not have access to it, or think it too highfalutin.  I believe everyone should be entitled to delicious, healthy and sustainable food, and a network of artisans reviving the camaraderie, love, and bartering of yore, is a big step in the right direction.  Learning to appreciate what’s involved in the making our food will teach us that there’s much more that we can get out of our food.  Together we can heal our bodies, our communities and our planet.

takepart by finding local food in your community with the upcoming film Food Inc.

Photo: anjuli_ayer’s Flickr Photostream (creative commons)